Albert Belle

Albert and his fraternal twin, Terry, were born on August 25, 1966, in Shreveport, Louisiana, the son of Albert Belle Sr., a high school baseball and football coach, and Carrie Belle, a former math teacher. He attained the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts of America. He graduated sixth in his high school class and made the all-state baseball team twice. He played outfield and pitched, winning one game. After graduation, Belle accepted a baseball scholarship to Louisiana State University. ==College==

Belle played college baseball at Louisiana State University from 1985 to 1987, where he made first-team All-SEC in 1986 and 1987 and played in 184 games, with 585 at bats, 194 hits, 30 doubles, 49 home runs, 172 RBIs, 157 runs, a .670 slugging percentage, and a .332 batting average. In 1986, he played collegiate summer baseball in the Cape Cod Baseball League for the Chatham A's and was named a league all-star, then returned to the league in 1987 to play for the Hyannis Mets. In his junior year, he was batting .349 before an incident involving a heckler insulting him with racial epithets at an SEC Tournament game led to a suspension that kept him out of the College World Series. After college, Belle was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the second round (47th overall) of the 1987 Major League Baseball draft. ==Professional career==

Cleveland Indians Belle made his major league debut on July 15, 1989, going 1-for-4 with one RBI in a 7–1 win against the Texas Rangers. He recorded an RBI single off Rangers pitcher Nolan Ryan in his first career at bat. On July 19, Belle hit his first major league home run and went 2-for-4, helping Cleveland to a 10–1 victory over the Minnesota Twins. He ultimately played in 62 games during his first season, batting .225 with seven home runs and 37 RBIs. nevertheless, he still managed to accrue a -63 "total zone runs" during 12 major league seasons. In 1992, Belle would have become one of only five players in MLB history to hit a home run over the left-field roof of Detroit's Tiger Stadium (joining Harmon Killebrew, Frank Howard, Cecil Fielder, and Mark McGwire), but the ball struck a light tower on top of the roof and fell back into the stands. at Kauffman Stadium In 1994, Belle lost the batting title to New York Yankees outfielder Paul O'Neill, .359 to .357. In 1995, Belle became the first player in MLB history to hit 50 home runs and 50 doubles in the same season; The achievement was more impressive because Belle played only 143 games in 1995 due to a season shortened by the previous year's player strike. Belle's surly reputation and disdain of the media cost him votes for the 1995 MVP Award. He finished second in the voting to the Boston Red Sox' Mo Vaughn, though he led the American League that season in runs scored, home runs, RBIs, slugging percentage, and total bases, and outpaced Vaughn head-to-head in every important offensive category except RBIs (both men had 126); both players' teams reached the playoffs. This was in the middle of a three-year streak in which Belle finished third, second, and third for the American League MVP. Belle had two other top-10 MVP finishes, in 1993 (seventh) and 1998 (eighth). He enjoyed two great seasons in Chicago, including a career-high 27-game hitting streak in May 1997, and came close to another 50/50 season in 1998 with 49 home runs (a White Sox team record that still stands) and 48 doubles. Additionally, when Cal Ripken Jr. ended his record consecutive game streak at 2,632 in September 1998, Belle took over as MLB's active leader in the category (his streak of 392 consecutive games ended the next year due to a perceived lack of hustle viewed by his manager). His career ended just two seasons later, though, when he was forced into retirement at age 34 by degenerative hip osteoarthritis. He was kept on Baltimore's active 40-man roster for the next three years as a condition of the insurance policy that largely reimbursed the Orioles for the remainder of his contract. Belle homered in the final at-bat of his MLB career at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on October 1, 2000. In 1,539 games over 12 seasons, Belle posted a .295 batting average (1,726-for-5,853) with 974 runs, 389 doubles, 21 triples, 381 home runs, 1,239 RBIs, 88 stolen bases, 683 bases on balls, .369 on-base percentage, and .564 slugging percentage. Defensively, he recorded a .976 fielding percentage playing at left and right field. In 18 postseason games, he hit .230 (14-for-61) with 10 runs, two doubles, six home runs, 14 RBIs, one stolen base, and 14 walks. ==Personal problems==

In 1990, the Indians sent Belle to the Cleveland Clinic for two months for alcoholism rehabilitation. The incident gained further notoriety when teammate Jason Grimsley crawled through the building's ceiling panels to break into the locked umpires' dressing room, where he replaced Belle's corked bat with a teammate's bat. The revelation of Belle's use of corked bats was later given more emphasis when Cleveland teammate Omar Vizquel wrote in his 2002 autobiography that it would be naive to suggest otherwise, and that "all of Albert's bats were corked." Belle was fined in 1996 for knocking down Brewers infielder Fernando Viña, who had blocked his way between bases. A profane outburst directed at a group of reporters in his team's dugout was widely reported during the 1995 World Series. He was unrepentant afterward: "The Indians wanted me to issue a statement of regret when the fine was announced, but I told them to take it out. I apologize for nothing." Eventually, Belle routinely refused to speak with the media whatsoever, explaining that players like Steve Carlton also did not interview and that he preferred to concentrate on baseball. Journalist Buster Olney wrote: :It was taken as fact in baseball circles that Albert Belle was nuts.... He slurped coffee constantly and seemed to be in a perpetual caffeinated frenzy. Few escaped his wrath; on some days he would destroy the postgame buffet ... launching plates into the shower, and after one poor at-bat against Boston, he retreated to the visitors' clubhouse and took a bat to teammate Kenny Lofton's boombox. Belle preferred to have the clubhouse cold, below 60°F, and when one chilly teammate turned up the heat, Belle walked over, turned down the thermostat, and smashed it with his bat. His nickname, thereafter, was "Mr. Freeze." ... The Indians billed him $10,000 a year for the damage he caused in clubhouses on the road and at home, and tolerated his behavior only because he was an awesome slugger.... In 2001, following his retirement, New York Daily News' columnist Bill Madden wrote: :Sorry, there'll be no words of sympathy here for Albert Belle. He was a surly jerk before he got hurt and now he's a hurt surly jerk....He was no credit to the game. Belle's boorish behavior should be remembered by every member of the Baseball Writers' Association when it comes time to consider him for the Hall of Fame. In his first year of Hall of Fame eligibility (2006), he garnered only 7.7% of the baseball writers' votes, missing election by an extremely wide margin. His vote total, though, was high enough to keep his name on the ballot for the following year. In 2007, he received only 19 votes (3.5%), knocking him off the ballot. In retirement, Belle had his first encounter with the Cleveland Indians since leaving the club in 1996, during their 2012 spring training in Goodyear, Arizona, and was joined by former teammates Kenny Lofton, Sandy Alomar Jr., and Carlos Baerga. ==Legal troubles==

In October 1995, Belle's house in Euclid, Ohio, was egged by teenagers after he turned away trick-or-treaters on Halloween. Belle chased one of the trick-or-treaters in his car. Belle was fined $100 for reckless operation of a vehicle. The guardian of the teenager later sued Belle for $850,000, contending that Belle's car had bumped into the teenager. The lawsuit was settled in 1997. In 2006, Belle was sentenced to 90 days in jail and five years' probation after he admitted to stalking his former girlfriend. On March 25, 2018, Belle was arrested in Scottsdale, Arizona, and charged with indecent exposure and driving under the influence. ==Awards and accomplishments==

College (LSU): • First team All-SEC (1986, 1987) • South 1 Regional Tournament MVP (1986) • Second team All-America (1986) • Third team All-America (1987) Major League Baseball (Cleveland Indians, Chicago White Sox, Baltimore Orioles): • AL home run leader (1995) • AL RBI leader (1993, 1995-tied with Mo Vaughn, 1996) • AL doubles leader (1995-tied with Edgar Martínez) • AL runs leader (1995-tied with Edgar Martínez) • AL slugging percentage leader (1995, 1998) • AL outfield assist leader (RF) (1999-tie) • Named to Silver Slugger team (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998) • All-Star (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997) • First player to ever hit 50 HR and 50 doubles (1995) • The Sporting News Player of the Year (1995) • Baseball Digest Player of the Year (1995) • Led major leagues in the 1990s with 1,099 RBIs • Led major leagues in extra-base hits in the 1990s with 711 • Fourth player ever to have eight straight seasons with 30 HR and 100 RBIs • Inducted into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame (June 2005) • AL leader in runs created (1998) • AL leader in OPS+ (1998) • AL leader in total bases (1994, 1995, 1998) ==See also==